'Stolen Lives': Mom's Search for Abducted Adult Daughter

For more than six years, Susana Trimarco has been searching for her daughter, Marita Veron, in a saga that has taken her to seamy areas amidst potentially dangerous people.

Then 23, the young woman left home on April 3, 2002 for a doctor’s appointment, telling her mother she would be back soon. Argentinian authorities believe she may have been kidnapped by a human trafficking ring and forced into prostitution, reports CNN. An estimated 800 women may have been kidnapped in this manner in Argentina since 2007.

“Now, art is imitating life on Argentina’s airwaves. Trimarco’s story has become the basis of one of Argentina’s most popular nighttime soap operas, Vidas Robadas, or Stolen Lives,” the news agency writes.

The telenovela, which premiered in March on the Telefe network, attracts 2 million viewers nightly in a country that has a population of 40 million, the article says, and is serving an important purpose by bringing the issue of human trafficking to public attention.

“I am delighted that the show has been able to bring this topic to light, because no one ever talked about human trafficking in Argentina before,” says Trimarco.